Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hypotheses for Natural Cancer Remission

Today I am excited to share a guest blog by Kelly Turner. Kelly is a researcher, lecturer, and consultant in the field of integrative oncology. She assists cancer patients who are interested in integrating complementary medicine approaches with their Western oncology treatment. Her interest in complementary medicine began when she received her B.A. from Harvard University, and it later became the sole focus of her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley.

Kelly’s dissertation research included a year-long trip around the world, for which she and her husband, Aaron Teich, L.Ac., traveled to ten different countries to interview 50 holistic healers and 20 “spontaneous” remission cancer survivors about their healing practices and techniques. She is currently working on a book for cancer patients that summarizes her research findings. I hope you will find her research helpful.

My name is Kelly Turner, PhD, and I’m a cancer consultant and researcher who studies people who heal from cancer without Western medicine, or after Western medicine has failed to remit their cancer. While personally I believe in combining the best of Western (allopathic) and Complementary medicine, as a researcher I study anomalous cases.

For my dissertation research at UC Berkeley, I traveled around the world for a year asking 50 non-allopathic healers from 12 different countries about how they treat cancer. Afterward, I asked 20 cancer survivors who had healed without Western medicine why they thought they healed. After scouring the 70, hour-long interview transcripts for common themes, what emerged were 3 underlying beliefs about cancer, and more than 75 cancer “treatments.”

In this guest blog, I will be discussing the three underlying beliefs about cancer. I will be describing the Top 6 cancer “treatments” used by my interviewees in another guest blog soon at http://www.tamiboehmer.com.
You may also read my full dissertation here: http://www.shuniyahealing.com/offer/research.html

(Note: This study was designed to collect hypotheses. Therefore, please remember that the following “findings” are opinions only).

Belief #1: Change the Conditions under which Cancer Thrives
The majority of my interviewees believed that cancer thrives under certain, sub-optimal conditions in the body. Therefore, to remove cancer, they recommended changing the underlying conditions in the body, at which point the cancer cells would theoretically die off naturally. This is quite different from the Western (allopathic) medicine view that sees cancer cells as “invaders” in an otherwise healthy body. An integrative oncologist from Japan describes his theory as follows:

HEALER (from Japan): Cancer substance is not made by cancer cells, but by human beings. And the cancer substance to change is not cancer cells, but human beings. Bad circulation and low [body] temperature – cancer cells never created [those] conditions. Human beings themselves created [those] bad circumstances.

KELLY: So it’s the bad circumstances that human beings create in their body that allow the cancer cells to grow?

HEALER (from Japan): Yes. So, my understanding is cancer cell is not malignant cell, but sacrificed/delinquent cell…adapted to the wrong circumstances…In our body, cancer cells never arise up in a heart or small intestine, because these heart and small intestine are warm and high [in] blood and high content of oxygen. Small intestine and heart is good circumstance, so [they have a] small percentage [of cancer] – [it is] very unusual for cancer [to appear in those organs].

Belief #2: Illness = Blockage/Slowness, Health = Movement
The majority of my 70 interviewees also believed that any illness – including cancer – represents a blockage or slowness in the system, while health is characterized by unhindered movement and flow. The theory is that when everything is flowing smoothly – your breath, blood, food, waste, emotions, and even your energy – then your body will be healthy and able to remove any bacteria, virus, etc. that enters your body. One woman who healed herself of metastatic pancreatic cancer said it this way:

“I think the etheric body – the energy body – organizes the physical body based on thoughts or emotions that are either flowing or blocked. So as long as emotions and thoughts are positive and flowing…then the physical body is holding a state of greater balance. As soon as the thoughts become low frequency thoughts, or our emotions become low frequency emotions, then the energy tends to jam up or get blocked in the auric field. And when it blocks up enough, it first creates discomfort…When nothing is done to release those emotions or thoughts, or to change them, eventually it moves into the etheric field and sometimes even into the physical body, and that’s what causes what I call ‘dis-ease.’ And again, it’s still just energy that’s stuck.”

Belief #3: A Body-Mind-Spirit Interaction Exists, and “Energy” Permeates All Three
The third and final underlying belief that the majority of my interviewees discussed was the idea that a body-mind-spirit interaction exists, and that energy (also called “chi” or “prana”) permeates all three of these levels. A chi-gong healer from New Zealand, who is also a colon cancer survivor, said it this way:

“They say a person is made up of your physical body and your ‘shen’ – which [in Traditional Chinese Medicine] is your consciousness or spirit – and then ‘chi’ is the thing that connects the ‘shen’ and your physical body. So those three will work together and are one, really, but the key thing to remember is that the ‘shen’ leads the ‘chi,’ so your consciousness, or where the mind is going, is where your chi is going, and that begets your physical body. So if your ‘shen’ is really busy and very emotional, you know going up and down, that really depletes your chi, and that leads to disease or breakdown.”

From the Author:
I am always looking for more cancer survivors to interview for my research. If you know of any that fit my research criteria, please invite them to email me at kellyturner@ShuniyaHealing.com. To learn more about the benefits of complementary therapies, please visit: http://www.ShuniyaHealing.com.

Elyn Jacobs
elyn@elynjacobs.com
elynjacobs.blogspot.com
**********************************************************
Elyn Jacobs is President of Elyn Jacobs Consulting, Inc. and a breast cancer survivor. She empowers women diagnosed with cancer to navigate the process of treatment and care, and she educates about how to prevent recurrence and new cancers. She is passionate about helping others get past their cancer and into a cancer-free life.

3 comments:

Unfortunately I don't fit into the required criteria but if others are better informed, it will bring a new awareness that simply is not new at all but a resurgence of combining a natural way of healing.

Mainstream Dr.s fear it because it may take away some of the myths about some cancers their cures and longevity...

Key Health For LifeWhen you are sick, you will see a doctor. Of course, the doctor will give you medicine. You take medicine in the hope you will be healthy again. Here's how the current health services, a cycle of diagnosis and preskrepsi.Read more »

Neetshaun, I couldn't agree with you more. Our own immune system is perfectly capable of protecting and healing our body, but as you say, we must give it the support it needs and deserves. thanks for the comment!